Various pieces of agricultural equipment employ crop residue treatment systems of several types that, among, other things, move and process crop residue, sometimes referred to as material other than grain (MOG), in various ways and often pulverize or cut or chop such crop residue into smaller portions during the equipment operation. Among such pieces of agricultural equipment are balers of various types, including round balers, square balers, and large square balers, as well as various types of combines, to name but a few.
In the operation of a typical baler, crop residue is moved and processed to form the residue into a desired shape such that, preferably, the crop residue that is included within the desired, resultant shape is so packaged that the bale is of a desired density. Various balers are designed to provide baled material in the shapes and densities that best fit the requirements of the end users. Often, in order to meet the desires or requirements of users, especially relative to the desired density of the bales, the crop residue material must be cut or chopped into smaller or finer pieces before it is formed into the bale. To accomplish such cutting or chopping, the crop residue treatment systems of balers have often included systems of various designs positioned directly in front of the baling chamber of a baler and configured to cut or chop the crop residue into smaller pieces as the crop residue is being provided to the baling chamber.
For somewhat similar, but distinct, purposes, crop residue treatment systems of various designs have also been employed with or as part of agricultural combines to move and process crop residue as it moves through such combines. In the operation of a typical agricultural combine that employs a threshing rotor, the crop residue that is generated during operation of the combine must be dealt with in some manner, typically by distributing it onto or over a field, often after being cut or chopped into smaller pieces before such distribution.
Historically, many combines have employed crop residue treatment systems that have included residue conveyance systems, sometimes referred to as beaters, at the rear of the threshing rotor to pull the residue away from the threshing rotor and to convey such crop residue to separate rear-mounted choppers and/or spreaders, sometimes referred to as hood mounted choppers, that act to chop and/or spread the crop residue provided thereto onto and over the field. With such system, users could, if they so desired, turn the chopper off to forego chopping action and/or bypass, or route the material flow around, the chopper portions of such systems to effect conveyance and distribution of the crop residue without chopping.
Often, however, the hood mounted choppers have been employed and so operated not only to convey the crop residue resulting from a harvesting operation but to also pulverize or cut or chop it into finer pieces and to spread the resulting crop residue mix onto and over the field. Typically, such hood mounted choppers have taken the form of what is sometimes referred to as a flail chopper, and the systems of which they are a part have evolved to the point that they may include over 100 flail knives on a rotating chopper, mounted within a dedicated housing that provides an appropriate environment for the operation of the rotating chopper so as to best maximize its performance. In order to be able to effect a spread of the chopped material over a width of up to about 40 feet, which width generally corresponds to the cut width of the header, the rotating chopper of such a residue management system has often operated at or above 3000 RPM so as to provide suitable and sufficient energy to the chopped material.
In an effort to provide greater equipment versatility while reducing equipment complexities, an alternative residue treatment management technology was also developed for use with combines, which technology incorporated into the harvester a multifaceted construction that was capable not only of fulfilling the primary purpose of transporting the crop residue away from the threshing system but also of treating such crop residue in varying manners dependent upon the desires of operators. Such constructions came to be known as integral choppers or integral chopper or chopping systems due to the integration of a chopping function, in addition to the primary transport function, into the combine and its operations. Such integral chopper systems, because of their positioning within the combine and their functional capabilities, offered a versatility not generally available with the hood mounted chopper systems.
Such integral chopper systems have been so designed that, as noted hereinabove, their primary function has been the transport of material away from the threshing system and a secondary function has been the treatment of such material as it is being so transported. Such operations have usually been effected in one of two different ways. Most commonly, the integral chopper system has been operated to transport the material from the threshing system to a spreading system as a rotary processor element or portion rotates at or near 3000 RPM so as to quickly move the material rearwardly and to also chop it into smaller pieces as it is being so transported. Less commonly, the integral chopper system has been operated to more gently transport the material from the threshing system to a spreading system as the rotary processor element operates at a much slower speed, typically at only about 800 RPM or less, with less chopping activity. In the former instance, the desire and expectation has been that the material will be transported and that the shortest mean length of cut will be realized to allow for modern minimum tillage applications while the chopping is accomplished using as little power as possible. In the latter instance, the desire and expectation has been that the material will be transported in such a manner as to provide longer and less damaged straw.
In general, existing integral chopper systems operate such that, as the flow of crop residue after threshing is discharged from the combine rotor and moves through the crop residue treatment and distribution system, it flows between the rotary element of the integral chopper assembly and the chopper grate assembly thereof. With the tines of the rotary element having sharpened and/or serrated and/or scalloped edges, when the stationary knife assembly is in an engaged position, as the crop residue is being moved and propelled rearwardly the interaction of the processor tines and the knife elements of the stationary knife assembly chop such crop residue into smaller pieces as such residue passes between the rotary element and the stationary knife assembly. The rotational movement of the rotary element, typically at or near 3000 RPM, serves not only to propel the resultant flow of crop residue further rearwardly, but also to effect an impact cutting of the material encountered by the tines and the knife elements of the stationary knife assembly. If the stationary knife assembly is positioned to a fully retracted position, the crop residue passing between the rotary chopper element and the chopper grate assembly is moved rearwardly by the action of the rotary element, with lessened, but still significant, chopping activity occasioned by the sharpened rotor tines. If the rotary element is rotated at a substantially lower speed, such as about 800 RPM instead of 2000-4000 RPM, somewhat larger and longer pieces of residue, with less damage thereto, can be transported rearwardly.
In general, it was found that such dual and alternative transport operations of the integral chopper systems could best be realized by employing knife elements fixedly or rigidly mounted to or on the rotary member, as opposed to flail-type elements that could be mounted to lugs on the rotary member so as to be free to rotate about such lug connections, and by the use of blade elements that had a sharpened edge to efficiently and effectively cut or chop the residue, as opposed to blunt bars for beating or pulverizing such residue, as the residue passed between the rotary chopper element and the chopper grate assembly.
Some users, however, desired that straw be effectively and even more gently transported rearwardly, with even less chopping and at lower speeds. Some of such integral chopper systems were therefore designed to be re-configurable to operate at still slower speeds, as crop processors, with blunt edged tines replacing the sharpened and/or scalloped tines. In such events, when the stationary knife assembly is in an engaged position, as the crop residue is being moved and propelled rearwardly, the blunt edged tines function to move such crop residue, with little or no impact cutting thereby, past the knife elements of the stationary knife assembly such that larger pieces of crop residue are cut into smaller pieces by the shearing action of the knife elements as the crop residue is being moved past such knife elements.
If the stationary knife assembly is positioned to a fully retracted position, however, such as might be desirable with some crops and/or for some residue, the crop residue passing between the rotary element and the chopper grate assembly is moved rearwardly by the action of the rotary element and the blunt edged tines thereof, with minimal chop. If the rotary chopper element is rotated at the low speed such as is desired for a crop processor, such as about 300 RPM, longer pieces of residue, with considerably less damage thereto, can be effectively transported rearwardly.
Unfortunately, such re-configuration of an integral chopper system to function more as a crop processor, and reverse re-configuration to return such system to the status required for operation as an integral chopper system, has generally been inconvenient, cumbersome, and time consuming, as a consequence of which most integral chopper systems are not designed to be so re-configurable and users seldom engage in re-configuration efforts even with those systems that may be so re-configurable.
Crop residue treatment systems of such various types have been effectively employed for their intended purposes for a number of years.
While such systems have taken somewhat differing forms, depending upon the particular pieces of agricultural equipment with which they have been utilized, as well as the desires of users and manufacturers, many of such systems have had certain commonalities or have exhibited similarities in their designs and operations, as a consequence of which various of such systems may sometimes be identified or referred to as being of certain general types. Included among such types of such crop residue treatment systems are certain systems that operate at relatively low speeds, hereinafter generally referred to as crop processors, and other systems that operate at considerably higher speeds, hereinafter generally referred to as impact chopper or impact chopping systems or assemblies, both of which types of crop residue treatment systems generally operate to convey crop residue and both of which may also be operated to, in general, cut or chop the crop residue being processed into smaller pieces.
In general, the systems that are identified as crop processors typically operate at lower rotational speeds, often less than 400 RPM, and employ blunt edged tines on a rotary member to contact and move the crop residue through the equipment, while the systems that are identified as impact chopping systems operate at considerably higher speeds, often in the range of 2000-4000 RPM, and employ rotor tines that have sharpened and/or scalloped and/or serrated edges on a rotary member to contact and move the crop residue through the equipment while also cutting into and chopping the crop residue upon impact therewith. Both crop processors and impact chopping systems often also include counter knife assemblies past which the crop residue being processed is conveyed in order to effect additional cutting or chopping of the crop residue, but the counter knife assemblies can often be retracted from the crop residue flow path if users desire to forego the use thereof.
Many of such crop processors and impact chopper assemblies employ like or similar components and exhibit certain similarities. Typically, many include a residue treatment assembly that has a rotary component or element disposed laterally within a housing extending generally horizontally across the flow path of the crop residue through the housing, as well as a counter knife assembly extending generally parallel to and spaced from the rotary element.
The rotary element of such residue treatment assembly, sometimes referred to a rotary chopper element, typically includes a cylindrical tube or like member having a plurality of rotor tines distributed therealong, oftentimes disposed in rows and columns, though sometimes in differing array configurations.
The counter knife assembly typically includes a chopper grate assembly spaced below and extending generally parallel to the rotary element and a knife mounting assembly positioned generally beneath the chopper grate assembly.
The chopper grate assembly of such a counter knife assembly typically includes a grate portion having a plurality of holes or transverse slots spaced along its length. At least in integral chopper assemblies, such holes or transverse slots are typically sized so that smaller pieces of crop residue, which may include un-separated grain, are able to pass therethrough and enter the combine cleaning system, at least when such holes or slots do not have other elements positioned therein or extending therethrough or are not otherwise been obstructed.
The knife mounting assembly of such a counter knife assembly typically includes bar-like elements or components, positioned generally below the chopper grate assembly, extending in a fixed end-to-end arrangement with a plurality of spaced blade elements along the portion of the bar-like element generally facing the rotary chopper element, which blade elements are aligned with slots in the grate portion of the chopper grate assembly. Such blade elements and slots in the grate portion of the chopper grate assembly are generally coordinately sized and configured to permit the blade elements to be insertable into the slots to at least partially project therethrough when the knife mounting assembly is disposed in certain positions.
Often, the counter knife assembly has associated therewith an adjustment mechanism that is operable to vary the spacing between the grate portion of the chopper grate assembly and the knife mounting assembly, as well as the degree of projection of the blade elements of the knife mounting assembly through the slots of the grate portion, as may be desirable depending upon the crop being harvested. Such an adjustment mechanism operates to move the knife mounting assembly between a fully engaged position with the blade elements of the knife mounting assembly extending through the slots towards the rotary chopper element and a fully retracted position in which the blade elements are fully withdrawn or retracted from the slots, and typically is also operable to adjustably vary the position between a fully engaged and fully retracted position.
A counter knife assembly of such general construction, whether or not the knife mounting assembly thereof has the capability of being adjustably repositionable relative to the grate portion by an adjustment mechanism, is often referred to as a stationary knife assembly. Such nomenclature has been considered appropriate since such knife mounting assemblies, though perhaps adjustable to some extent to vary the distance between the rotary chopper element and the knife mounting assembly, such as by movement of the knife mounting assembly relative to the grate portion of the chopper grate assembly and the slots thereof, often in an arc-like movement about an offset axis parallel to both the rotary chopper element and the longitudinal axis of the knife assembly mounting, remain in essentially fixed or stationary positions during the chopping operation of the residue chopper assembly once they have been adjustably moved to a given position.
With such constructions, when the counter knife assemblies are withdrawn or retracted, the rotor tines thus rotate with the rotary element to effect movement of the crop residue through the flow path between the rotary element and the grate portion of the counter knife assembly. With the crop processor, the blunt edged rotor tines, rotating at a relatively low speed, contact and move the crop residue through the flow path with relatively little damage to the crop residue, as a consequence of which the lengths of crop residue can be passed relatively whole and uncut. With the impact chopping system, the sharpened and/or serrated edges of the rotor tines, rotating at a considerably higher speed, impact and chop through the impacted crop residue as the crop residue is being conveyed through the flow path, as a consequence of which the resulting crop residue is cut or chopped into smaller lengths.
When the counter knife assemblies are positioned to extend through the slots in the grate portion as the rotary element is rotating, the rotor tines cooperate with the blade elements of the knife mounting assembly to both propel the residue rearwardly and to effect a cutting or chopping of the residue as it passes between the rotary chopper element and the chopper grate assembly. With crop processors, the blunt edged rotor tines compress the crop residue material as it is being conveyed past the fixed knife assembly at relatively low speeds, which action results in a shearing of the compressed crop residue material by the blade elements of the fixed knife assembly and in the conveyance rearwardly within the equipment of crop residue of shorter lengths. With impact chopping systems, the sharpened and/or serrated rotor tines, rotating at speeds often in the range of 2000-4000 RPM, cut into, yet also move, the crop residue rearwardly past the blade elements of the fixed knife assembly to effect a co-operative cutting or chopping of the crop residue into considerably smaller lengths.
Relative to the present discussion, the significant distinctions between such systems have resided in the differing aspects of the rotor tines, i.e., blunt versus sharpened edges, and in the speeds of operation.
For the most part, despite the commonalities and similarities between systems, balers have employed crop processors, operating at relatively low speeds, while harvesters have employed impact chopper assemblies, operating at considerably higher speeds, for effecting the desired cutting of crop residue. Both baler users and harvester users have, however, continued to seek improvements in the operations and efficiencies of their respective crop residue treatment systems, with baler users desiring, among other things, the ability to obtain throughput crop residue that is better aligned and of a more uniform cut length for baling, and with combine users desiring, among other things, a system that is optionally operable both at lower speeds and with less damage to the crop residue, such as for windrowing, and at higher speeds, yet with sufficient cutting capability, such as for distribution of crop residue over a field.
In such regards, baler users have desired that the throughput of the crop processors be increased to provide better efficiency. However, increases in rotational speed of the rotary element have often resulted in feeding issues and in reduced cut quality, due, in part, to difficulties associated with the manner in which crop residue material has been moved through the crop processor to be sheared by the knife elements of the counter knife assembly, as a consequence of which most crop processors in the industry have been limited to operational speeds of about 100-300 RPM. Moreover, as the crop residue material has been provided to such a crop processor, those larger and longer pieces have been presented in a haphazard configuration, with only a small percentage of the longer pieces being aligned generally parallel to the axis of the rotary processor element. Consequently, as the longer pieces have been moved past the knife elements of the stationary knife assembly, the shearing cuts of the non-aligned longer pieces of crop residue material have often been angled relative to the thickness of such longer pieces, rather than being generally transverse to the thickness, as a consequence of which system loading has been higher than was desirable and the resulting smaller pieces of crop residue material have been of less uniform length than was desirable. Additionally, because some sliding movement could occur along the knife elements as the longer pieces were being moved past them, the angled cuts could also have some curvature thereto, resulting in a further increase in system loading.
Harvester users, on the other hand, have desired a crop residue treatment system that could be employed at the location of an integral chopper assembly and which could sometimes be operated at a relatively low speed for transporting crop residue from various crops, such as straw, through the harvester with limited cutting and for windrowing, yet which could at other times be used with other crops, perhaps at somewhat higher speeds, to efficiently and effectively cut the crop residue into smaller pieces for distribution over a field. Replacement or conversion of the impact chopping systems, with their sharp-edged rotor tines, so that they could occasionally function more akin to beaters has been problemsome, and reversals of the replacement or conversion actions have generally been necessary to return the crop residue treatment systems to effective use as impact chopping systems since the resulting converted constructions, even if operable at relatively slow speeds and for transporting straw through the combine with relatively little damage thereto, were generally not also efficiently operable at higher speeds to effect an adequate chopping of the crop residue such as would be required for different crops or in different situations. Such cumbersome and time consuming conversions have not generally been considered practical for the day to day use of harvesters.
Consequently, to this point in time, a single solution has not been available to address the seemingly disparate and conflicting desires of crop processor users and impact chopping system users, and different solutions have therefore been independently explored for the differing crop residue treatment systems. With respect to balers and their crop processors, it has been recognized that increased throughput can result in improved efficiency, but attempts to increase the throughput volume by increasing the operational speed of the rotary element have typically resulted in feeding difficulties and poor chop quality, as a consequence of which most crop processors in the industry have continued to be limited to operational speeds of about 100-300 RPM. With respect to combines, it has been recognized that, for some crops and crop conditions, a crop residue treatment system that would function more akin to a crop beater would be preferable to an impact chopping system, but attempts to develop such a system that can operate more slowly, such as for, among other things, purposes of fuel economy, and also to transport straw through the harvester for windrowing, with less chopping thereof, yet which can also efficiently operate to effect the finer, desired cut quality when the crop residue is to be distributed over a field, have often fallen short of desires and expectations.
It has now been found, however, that the inclusion and employment of a rotor tine and rotary element configuration of an improved design in both crop processors and impact chopping systems permits users thereof to realize in great part many of the advantages sought therefor, including increased efficiencies in the operations of such crop residue treatment systems, while overcoming and/or minimizing many of difficulties and disadvantages associated with the prior art constructions, as noted hereinabove.